Maldonado (photo) will protest his defeat. Photo: Josh Hedges/UFC
Last Friday (17), Fabio Maldonado came very close to making history and defeating the legend Fedor Emelianenko in combat carried out in Russia. But, given his defeat in the judges' decision, the Brazilian's team plans to appeal the result.
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In the first round of the fight, Maldonado narrowly missed knocking out the Russian, who ended up surviving in fits and starts. In the following two periods there was balance, with good moments on both sides. However, in the scoring, two judges pointed to Emelianenko's victory, and the other declared a draw.
Maldonado's manager, Stefano Sartori, highlighted his athlete's performance in the fight, but was largely dissatisfied with the result. “We are very happy with Fabio’s performance, he did everything right inside the cage. One of our main goals was to show the world what a fighter he is and what he can do when he is 100% focused, and we accomplished that. But we were focused on winning and we felt like the judges took the victory away from us. The promoters didn’t agree with the result and most of the fighters who were there also thought the result was strange,” he said, in a statement sent to the North American website “MMA Fighting”.
Sartori indicated his score for the fight. “The first round was clearly 10-8 for us. In the second round, Fedor narrowly won 10 to 9, and in the third, it was very even, but we think Maldonado landed the best shots. At least it was a draw, and we will appeal to the Russian MMA Union to review this result,” he said.
Also on “MMA Fighting”, Maldonado complained about the result. “I have tremendous respect for Fedor, he is the most humble fighter I have ever seen in my life. But I think I won the fight. I didn't lose that third round. Worst case scenario, give him the third round and we have a draw. He didn't win that fight. The judges saw what no one saw”, lamented the Brazilian.
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